Does the tide matter when going for mackerel? It's my first full season with my boat, and could use a little help. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. :spin:

i've never seen a mackeral that wouldn't eat.
if you can find them,,, you can usually catch them.
even when there bieng attacked from below they'll still hit rigs.

Tide doesn't matter in a boat for macks. If your getting reports in that area its important to jig the whole water column at leaset 4oz jigs. All silver or silver/red tiped christmas tree jigs the best in the bay. The more fisherman on board the more likely you'll keep macks in the area.

This might help with the macs --- when you hook one, don't take it out of the water until the other rods are hooked up as well. The school will most often stay with the hooked fish, so by always keeping one hooked fish in the water, you can keep the school right around the boat. When its going good, you can almost get a rotation of sorts going with 3 or 4 guys.
If they are really thick, I crush the barbs down on the teasers as well -even though I lose a bunch, I figuere I net out with more b/c I can get the rig back over more quickly. Plus, I use them for troll baits, so fish with half their mouths ripped of are no good to me anyways.

Thanx for the advice. Heading out early Monday morning, hopefully I can get into some, and then get into some bass. I'll post with my results. :soon:

There was a time, many many moons ago, when you could visit the Backside and sight cast to Macs. I'm glad I saw it , and I'm sad that it's gone.

Use sabikis, nevermind the old style christmas trees. And dont bother attaching your tree to anything with hooks, a bank sinker is way safer and less of a hassle.

Had about 40 mackerel in the boat in 25 minutes. Finished the day with a decent amount of fish as well. Any advice on how to keep the mackerel alive longer. I tried the aerator in the tote, only lasted about 1 1/2 hrs.

don't use bleeders, keep only smallest baits. buy a better tank/ pump

Tide doesn't matter. What matters is chum! Make sure you have it. I've used tuna and mayonaise when I've ran out of the real thing and it worked great. They won't stick around wihtout chum.

Nice Job Bro!!!

don't put bleeders in the box , save them for bait or chum later on , also if possable rig up a sea water pump system , if that is not pratical at least put a drain tube in and periodicly pour in a bucket of fresh sea water good luck

Make yourself a livewell from a barrel, visit livebaitlarry to get the design and parts you need. I made mine for about 80$